Finding a new home

Boxes — unpacked, we might add — filled the room in the rectory.Father Brian Dellaert took a glance into the room and couldn’t help but smile.“Yes, I have a little work to do,” he said, “but that can wait. I have people to meet and work to do.”And he’s excited about both.After spending the last three years in Rome, Father Dellaert is back home in the U.S.A. and back doing what he loves most — serving as a parish priest.Dellaert began work at the Good Shepherd Cluster — which includes Holy Family Parish in New Hampton, as well as parishes in North Washington and Ionia — on July 12.Unpacking can wait.“I am very excited about my assignment,” Dellaert said. “It’s an exciting new chapter in my life, and as rewarding as Rome was, I did miss being a parish priest.”And he is grateful for people like Father Mark Osterhaus, the man he replaced, and Monsignor Carl Schmitt, the retired priest who still conducts masses and fills in when needed.“Both of them went way out of their way to help me with the transition,” he said. “I’m blessed to have had their help.”— For more on this story, see the July 26 Tribune